How to Troubleshoot a Ford Tractor Transmission

Park and turn off your Ford tractor. Allow the engine time to cool.

Open the hood over the Briggs & Stratton engine and look along the top of the engine assembly for the large, circular iron piece. This is the flywheel. Remove the cover over the flywheel by taking out its bolts using a socket wrench.

Inspect the outer fins on the flywheel. Any burrs along these fins must be removed, otherwise the flywheel will stop operating properly and the transmission's power conversion process will fail. File away the flywheel's burrs using a hand file, then set the flywheel cover and its bolts back into place.

Test the Ford tractor to gauge whether the flywheel adjustment fixed the issue. If it did not, cut the engine and remove the flywheel's cover once more.

Place a flywheel pulley over the Ford tractor's exposed flywheel. Once in place, tighten the center bolt on the pulley until the resulting pressure allows the flywheel to come free from the tractor's engine block. This will allow access to the top of the clutch shaft.

Find the oil pan below the Ford's engine block. This rectangular pan is held in place by numerous bolts. Remove these bolts with your socket wrench and slide the oil pan away, revealing the bottom of the clutch shaft.

Note the visible bolts along the Ford tractor's clutch shaft. Use your socket wrench to again remove these bolts.

Hit the top center of the clutch shaft with a rubber mallet to dislodge it from the Briggs & Stratton engine. Slide a replacement shaft into its place.

Follow your disassembly steps in reverse.